Hoping for a Year of change.

A new Year is always a milestone people like to associate with new goals, new promises, new intentions, etc. To me, this year brings the hope for a return to what life used to be two years ago. A chance to start all over again. To rescue what is important, to reunite what matters to the heart, to embrace what is needed for the soul.

As most people, I do have several personal goals (Dive again, return to triathlon training, visit family, take on underwater photography, dive into music again, etc.), but only one promise, to make all efforts honoring D boy and all the kids.

I will also make the commitment to retake this outlet with more frequency.

Thanks for this blank space, which helps to make my life clearer.

Music is a bean of light showing the road you are traveling at any given moment, and when you turn your head back music can show you the circles, bumps, highs and lows, the roots, the branches, and the falls of what your life has been until this point.

In my teens, Roxy music was all of those things wrapped in a timeless feeling of uniqueness, frustration, high energy, beauty, and ethereal dancing on the hot tropical nights of my town.

Memories of good friends, some already gone, dancing in the night with a whiskey on their hands, Luis, Rogelio, Jose, Juan Manuel, Hector. Looking for the laugh, the brotherhood, the common sense of belonging. True to Life.

I took good old Reno to the Dam, I sat with him next to the river edge, Canadian ducks and other birds, he was thorn between chasing the birds and getting wet, or just lay down and feeling the breeze.

Almost 14 years of friendship, love, and loyalty. Sometimes I feel like he is the messenger between us.

…But still they lead me back
To the long winding road
You left me standing here
A long, long time ago
Don’t keep me waiting here
Lead me to your door…

Between the natural beauty and the sense of belonging, this place has special meaning for me. Riding up and down on my old Ducati this is where I first felt like a real Californian. The place where I said Hello, and Good bye to one of the most precious people in my life…

I did a run to Sepulveda Dam, a place I always wondered about, standing up in the middle of the Valley, old, rusted, decadent, a famous symbol of 70’s Hollywood.

Running there you can’t help but get covered by dirt and dust, to feel part of those old days. It brings back memories of those black and white TV days, seating down next to my dad, watching Cannon, CHiPs, or some other police show. Old as memories

There is loyalty, and dog loyalty, and Luna topped all that with the addition of love, beauty and friendship. There is loyalty, and dog loyalty, and Luna topped all that with the addition of love, beauty, and friendship. Dogs are part of the family, but Luna was sometimes like the glue that kept all members from going in different directions, and maybe, because of that reason she was always in the middle of everyone.

Stubborn, always in your way, in your face, and if you blinked you could have found her on top of your bed. A huge dog, but strangely elusive if she wanted. Her love will never be forgotten. Thanks for all the years, our big “Luna”.

Every time I see this picture reminds me of the smell of humidity, the salt in the air, the permanent rust created on every metal, the cracks in the cement, the fading paint, the old city where I grew up.

While the start of a new year is pretty much a symbolic moment, this year (2021) the first sunset takes a new meaning.
Hoping for winds of change, to adjust to a new reality, to survive the never decreasing number of deaths, to avoid becoming just a statistic, to save our human legacy, and overall to thrive with respect and humanity.
A year ago I had dreams of setting new homes and a more rewarding life in foreign and warmer lands, today those dreams are on hold, and surviving the worst is the goal.
For a better year indeed.